<p>Hey all,</p>
<p>I'm planning to attend UCSD and they have a major known as math-computer science. I was wondering if it would be more beneficial career wise to major in that or to just major in computer science. Ideally, I would be able to work at Google, Microsoft, intelligence agencies, etc. </p>
<p>Which do you think would help me more? Please help me out.</p>
<p>i did a math/cs double major and i couldn’t be happier. if you want to go the google/msoft/intelligence route, i wouldn’t hesitate to do the math/cs path.</p>
<p>it will help your resume (math makes you a stronger candidate for financial jobs and research jobs that you might not otherwise consider applying for as a CS major), and it will certainly help you out during the interviewing process— if you learn discrete math well, it will make 70% of the questions they ask at the challenging interviews trivial— and it will help you in algorithms and theoretical CS classes too.</p>
<p>however, if your only goal is to become a software engineer, then I would consider doing the CS major by itself (which presumably requires more practical courses).</p>
<p>Oh but the thing is that the math-computer science isn’t a double major. it’s just one degree. it’s more focused on math with some comp sci classes…so i guess this wouldnt really make me up to par in terms of programming or everything, which is what those companies basically look for, right?</p>
<p>Programming skills are definitely at the top of the list for Microsoft or Google, not so much in Govt or research.</p>
<p>I frequently hear that the programming skills people pick up in a 3-month software internship outshine everything they learned in college. For some, programming skills are most easily picked up outside of the classroom and CS curricula overwhelmingly focus on theory rather than programming skills. On the other hand, math is something that is very hard to pick up without professors guiding you. Don’t do cs/math if you aren’t excited by math. You could always put a few extra math classes as your electives later on.</p>
<p>The most important thing is to talk to an advisor, and consider how easy it would be to switch between programs. Take the intro sequence in CS, and then you should be able to go in either direction. If you do well in either program, you will have as good a chance as anyone in getting into msoft or google your internships/summer research may be a more important factor.</p>